The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 left Americans wondering how such a breach of security could have occurred. Relatives and friends of the victims pushed for the creation of a National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States to investigate the government's preparedness for and response to the attacks and to provide recommendations for preventing future disasters. As Senior Advisor to the 9/11 Commission, Ernest R. May provides students with a firsthand account of the commission's methods and actions. His introduction, which describes the drafting process and the...

By the end of World War II, Americans' relationship with nature had changed dramatically. New consumption patterns drove an industrial economy that damaged the earth in new ways, and the atomic age heightened awareness of the earth's fragility. Environmental historian Steven Stoll identifies 1945 as the birth of American environmentalism-the point when conservation and nature advocacy fused with activism to form a political movement. In this thematically organized collection of primary sources, Stoll traces the development of the environmental movement and identifies its central issues and...

More than just a fascinating story, Olaudah Equiano's autobiography - the first slave narrative to be widely read - reveals many aspects of the eighteenth-century Western world through the experiences of one individual. The second edition takes into consideration the latest scholarship on Atlantic history and the history of slavery. Professor Allison s introduction, which places Equiano s narrative in the context of the Atlantic slave trade, has been revised and updated to include a discussion of the geographic origins of African slaves and the debate over Equiano s birthplace. Expanded and...

The American women's movement was one of the most influential social movements of the twentieth century. Beginning with small numbers, the women's movement eventually involved tens of thousands of women and men. Longstanding ideas and habits came under scrutiny as activists questioned and changed the nation's basic institutions, including all branches of government, the workplace, and the family. Nancy MacLean's introduction and collection of primary sources engage students with the most up-to-date scholarship in U.S. women's history. The introduction traces the deep roots of the women's...